Growing pineapples from the store!

This has been a story of trial and error.  I read a bit online, and Jay thought we could just plant the top in the ground.  We tried that, and after it became slightly dead and unpleasant looking we composted it.  Of course, not long after my friend Kim that lives near us told us what she does:  simply cuts the top off the pineapple and throws it outside.  She said they can look positively dead and then within a few months it will come back.  Oh well...

By the time I was aware of that,  I was very successful with a bit more lengthy process.

1.  Pull the greens off the top (it should come out like a plug).
2.  Remove the bottom 3-5 tiers of leaves.  Cut the plug until you see brownish/white dots - these are the beginnings of roots!
3.  Stick it in a glass of water so only the bottom is wet - set it on top of the fridge and forget it for awhile!

After awhile, roots will grow!  Then you can plant them.  Apparently these hate frost, too - so they will need to be in pots that can be brought indoors, or covered in the event of frost if planted outside.

It is pretty cool to watch them grow - as the plant take shape the leaves expand outwards - and boy are they spiky!  Pineapples are part of the bromeliad family, the same as air plants and spanish moss!

 I think I'm going to probably plant this guy next to my banana plant, and get a whole family started!  The one major downside with pineapples... the fruit takes a whole year to mature!  In fact, the one pictured below was given to me by Carol of Wirt's Point Nursery - the pineapple fruit, which was not even close to mature, had fallen off the plant because someone had knocked it.  I did manage to get it to start growing!

For a fun bit of trivia, the pineapple got its name from columbus when he brought them back to europe - the fruit resembled a pine cone, but the meat inside was tasty.  Read more about that here.